Spink Master’s Portfolio 1

Standards #4 & #5: Arts Integration

Candidates engage learners in critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication to
address authentic local and global issues using the arts (music, dance, theater, media arts,
and/or visual arts). (See Alaska Arts Standards)

Although funding for art and art specific teachers have been diminished in the state
budget, art remains one of the most important, and accessible, forms of presentation and idea
representation within elementary school and education as a whole. Music, dance, and physical
representations of concepts all can reinforce the traditional skills of reading and writing within
the classroom. Zhou and Brown (2018), from the University System of Georgia, define arts
integration as “an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate
understanding through an art form. Students engage in a creative process, which connects an
art form and another subject area and meets evolving objectives in both” (p. 7). This definition,
when broken down, highlights three key components; students demonstrating understanding
through an art form, students connecting an art form and a subject area creatively, and using
art to meet evolving objectives. When integrating art into units and different subjects, these
three target areas are paramount to reinforcing the material and developing students’
artistic skills and knowledge comprehension. This is reflected in my engineering lesson in
which students used art to model and reflect on their experiments and in my art specific lesson
in which students explored emotion in art and how to display it in their own artistic pieces.
The first target area for arts integration, students demonstrating understanding through
an art form, has several different aspects to it. As students actively build their knowledge and
portray it through different forms of art, they are strengthening connections through different
parts of the brain with the material at hand (Phillips, 2015). Silverstein and Layne (2020)
believe that using art to demonstrate understanding needs to be an “approach, that learning is
actively built, experiential, evolving, collaborative, problem solving, and reflective” (para. 12).
When using art as a tool for understanding I try to include these elements of actively building
knowledge, collaboratively problem solving, and reflecting on the experience as a whole.
Within my art and engineering lesson I portray these qualities in several different parts of the
process.
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The first aspect of understanding through art, actively building knowledge, often
happens in the beginning and intermediate stages of the process. While this sometimes comes
through as a visual hook, it can also be used throughout the lesson to reinforce the material.
Miller (2013) portrays one important way in which visual representations can help this active
process, stating that “when readers create mental images, they engage with text in ways that
make it personal and memorable to them alone” (p. 96). Often times visual examples and
physical representations, such as acting, help communicate difficult to access content for
stronger kinetic learners. In my engineering lesson, students were challenged to construct a
catapult out of a limited set of resources. Before they could start construction they had to
come up with a strategy and diagram their thought process. Creating a visual representation of
the design that they wanted to create helped students organize and develop their thoughts,
while leading to a richer reflection process.
In the second element of understanding through art, going through a collaborative and
problem solving process, students share their active knowledge with each other and build on
each other’s ideas. Integrating art into subject material makes this relatively easy because, as
Lesh (2011) points out, “I am always amazed at how visual images, be they photographic, hand
drawn, painted, or sculpted, stimulate conversation among my students” (p. 33). Within my art
lesson, which dealt with the connection between different types of lines and artistic portrayals
of emotions, students broke into groups and were tasked with producing one of the different
types of lines within their artwork. The challenge for students was to draw an object or
situation that reflected the emotions that the lines in their artwork portrayed. For example,
one of the students shown in the student artifact section of the lesson drew a rainbow to
reflect the happy effects that curved lines often portray in paintings. Each student then had to
discuss with their partners which lines they drew and what emotion they helped portray, both
visually and verbally. This process helped students with the follow up activity, in which they
painted a piece of artwork portraying their own emotions during the lesson.
The third and final element of understanding through art is the evolving and reflective
nature of the process. Once students have actively built their knowledge and developed upon
each other’s ideas, it is time to synthesize the entire endeavor. As Wiggins and McTighe (2005)
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succinctly put it, “don’t underestimate the power of self-assessment in design” (p. 113). This
may have been the most important part of the engineering lesson, the self-assessment and
reflection aspect. After students had created a design they built their catapults and tested
them out. When the testing phase was over students were asked to go back to their design and
reanalyze it, using their knowledge, and plan future revisions in light of their new knowledge.
This evolution in design and thinking is at the heart and soul of good science and is made all the
more accessible when visually represented.
In conjunction with students increasing their understanding through art, the second
main component of successful arts integration is the ability to connect a subject and an art form
creatively. This can manifest itself in several different ways but, as the Y for Youth (2022)
organization details it, “be sure that students have an opportunity to explore, express, and
present something that incorporates learning from different subject areas” (para. 3). All three
of these factors are important when connecting subject material through art forms. In my
lessons I include versions of exploration, expression, and presentation whenever possible
through artistic forms.
The first factor, exploration, is generally prevalent in the beginning and middle of
lessons when it comes to incorporating art. One excellent way to promote this exploration is to
“provide each group of students with a photograph, letter, poster, or other primary artifact that
will help them discover first-hand information about people, places, or events being studied”
(Koechlin & Zwaan, 2014, p. 70). In my art lesson I showed the class three vivid examples of
different art pieces with clear emotions portrayed within them. Through these different
examples the class discussed how the paintings conveyed emotion which led us into an
exploration of the different types of lines used in each painting. The second factor, expression,
built off of this first example. Students were tasked with creating their own paintings using the
lines we had discussed to convey emotions. Likewise, when integrating art into my engineering
lesson, the students created the visual representation of their building plan in order to organize
and express their building process to the teacher and each other. Wiggins and McTighe (2005)
makes a great point in this part of the process, stating that “skills are means, not ends; the aim
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is fluent, flexible, and effective performance” (p. 113). A skill isn’t truly mastered if students
can’t independently use and manipulate it to fit their current needs.
The third factor, presentation, is one of the most important, and adaptable steps into
successful arts integration. One way to utilize this is to construct a representation of a
student’s understanding. As Miller (2013) notes, “models constructed from clay and paper
illustrate a child’s learning and demonstrate understanding” (p. 98). In the engineering lesson,
this was the culmination of the project. Creating the catapult itself brought the written and
drawn plan into reality and was the visual presentation of the students’ knowledge and
preparation.
While the first two components of arts integrations, understanding through art and
creatively connecting art forms and subject content, are essential to an effective teaching
practice, the third directly connects to the required content in the state curriculum. This final
component, that arts integration must meet evolving objectives in both art and a content
subject, is reflected in the Arts Integration Framework’s (2022) definition that “the art discipline
and the connected subject are equally represented in the learning experience through relevant
purposes, standards and learning targets related to each” (para. 8). Both the art and
engineering lesson focus on relevant purposes, standards, and learning targets within the
Alaska standards for arts integration.
In the definition, that the art discipline and connected subject connect with a purpose,
the Alaska standards lay out clear goals for the different art forms. The first enduring
understanding in anchor standard #1 is that “creative and innovative thinking are essential life
skills to be developed” (Alaska Arts Standards, n.d., p. 13). In both lessons, the artistic
integration helped students creatively use innovative thinking in essential life skills. The art
lesson developed students understanding of emotions and how to convey them through art
while the engineering lesson helped students learn how to conceptualize written plans and
eventually construct an actual model of those plans. The second step in connecting arts
integration to state objectives is focusing on the full standards themselves. For third grade,
standard 1a-3 states that students need to be able to “brainstorm and elaborate on an
imaginative idea” (Alaska Arts Standards, n.d., p. 13). In the engineering lesson, the initial
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discussion between partners garnered the brainstorming ideas to bring an imaginative idea to
fruition.
The third task that arts integration needs to fulfill is focusing on the learning targets
within the Alaska state standards. One essential question within anchor standard #2 for the
state learning objectives is “how do artists/designers work and reflect on the direction of their
work? How do artists and designers learn from trial and error?” (Alaska State Standards, n.d.,
p. 13). In my engineering lesson this question was answered through the trial and error that my
students undertook in their design of their catapults. After designing their catapults they tested
them and then reflected on the results together, revising their initial design and planning on
improvements for the future.
Integrating art into subjects might require a little extra preparation but the inherent
benefits in the expressive nature of the different art forms is worth the effort. The key to
successful arts integration into the general education curriculum is that students are able to
demonstrate understanding through an art form, that students can connect an art form and
subject area creatively, and that the art forms are used to meet evolving objectives within state
standards and objectives. Within my lessons I try to integrate and utilize art whenever possible
to reinforce the material and make it more accessible for everyone involved and this is reflected
in my engineering and art lesson. Although my artistic repertoire is far from fully developed,
the biggest improvements that I’ve made in lesson planning is added variety and dynamic
elements that often revolve around art and as I refine my techniques, I will continue to do so
for years to come.

References
Alaska Department of Education & Early Development. (n.d.). Alaska Arts Standards. Alaska
Department of Education & Early Development.
https://education.alaska.gov/akstandards/Arts.pdf?v=2
Arts Integration Framework. (2022). What is arts integration? Arts Integration Framework.
http://www.artsintegrationpd.org/arts-integration/
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Koechlin, C., & Zwaan, S. (2014). Q tasks: How to empower students to ask questions and care
about the answers. (2nd ed.). Pembroke Publishers Limited. Mototsune, K.
Lesh, B. A. (2011). “Why won’t you just tell us the answer?”: Teaching historical thinking in
grades 7-12. Stenhouse Publishers.
Miller, D. (2013). Reading with meaning: Teaching comprehension in the primary grades.
(2nd ed.). Sternhouse Publishers.
Phillips, R. (2015). Art enhances brain function and well-being. The Healing Power of Art &
Artists. https://www.healing-power-of-art.org/art-and-the-brain/
Silverstein, L. B., & Layne, S. (2022) What is arts integration? The Kennedy Center.
https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-
resources/articles-and-how-tos/articles/collections/arts-integration-resources/what-is-
arts-integration/
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005) Understanding by design. (2nd ed.). Pearson. Davis, K.
You for Youth. (2022). Integrating the arts with other subjects. You for Youth.
https://y4y.ed.gov/toolkits/afterschool/arts/integrating-the-arts-with-other-subjects
Zhou, M., & Brown, D. (2018). Arts integration in elementary curriculum. Education open
textbooks.
https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=education-
textbooks